what the small man seeks is in others.”

― Confucius

Following World War II the relevance of individual identity in art has been disregarded. This blog intends to shed light on the continued expression of individuality by artists.

Karl Zerbe (1903 – 1972)

[All modern artists have] “the desire to give to the object a functional beyond its naturalistic aspect to free it from its accidental surroundings, to develop and organize it within the frame of the picture into an emotional potential. In other words, the object is elevated to a symbol.”

“For myself I venerate all of that which I am forced to call , for the sake of clarity, the past, my own Western Heritage and the even older and brilliant past of the Far East and Near East and their multiple cultures. In this way I feel I pay homage to the Titan’s, both anonymous

“Golub was a righteous monster who reconciled painting with the unpalatable realities of his time.”

Leon Golub, The Orator IV, 1962. Oil on canvas, 37 x 30 3/4 inches

Robert Nathans (1955-2016)

“I bring all my memories with me as I stand in front of my canvases. Here my intuition comes into play. It will sometimes take me months of working. Then, somewhere in this process of painting and observing. I would inextricably disappear. Unaware of body, time, and space when I become painting.”

“Emotions are the base of the work I make and I use paint and brushstrokes to express what I want to say, and the feeling I wish to convey.

Painting to me is a collaborative process.

Oil paint is a live medium and if you do something with it, it does something back that you again can respond to; it is a communication. Every work I create contains figures or figurative elements. I always enjoyed the figure and I have a love relationship with it as form. It is also the most direct way I can convey my own experience and it is ultimately this experience I create out of.”

Joe Stefanelli (born 1921) also known as Joseph J. Stefanelli belonged to the New York School Abstract Expressionist artists whose influence and artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized around the world. New York School Abstract Expressionism, represented by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and others became a leading art movement of the post-World War II era.

Marika Herskovic, the editor and driving force behind the book “New York School Abstract Expressionists: Artist’s Choice by Artists,” may well have hauled in the most complete roundup of the many and varied painters and sculptors who created and defined the most adventurously American art movement of the 20th century.

This lavish book presents 265 artists in 393 pages, with no less than 172 full-page reproductions and statements by 86 artists.

The New York School movement was undoubtedly the most significant in the history of American art. Taking place in downtown New York where artists worked in neighboring studios during the post World War II boom, Abstract Expressionism received visibility in artist-organized exhibits beginning with the “9th Street Show” in 1951 and continuing uptown with the annual Stable Gallery shows until 1957.

The New York School was inhabited by a variety of yet-to-be-known makers and individual styles, yet all shared the brave new art world of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko.

The book documents not only those who made it and became world famous, but the many about whom, still, little is known. Yet they participated richly with their energy, work, and ideas in this tumultuous, generative period. The book represents them vividly, thereby ensuring that they will not be lost.

What most defined the time was its high camaraderie, a group spirit in downtown New York that had its genesis in the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, when artists worked on government sponsored projects and murals in public spaces. The movement reached its peak in the late 1940s and early 1950s and has not been equaled since.

Ibram Lassaw Erinnys, 1954

All right reserved by the artists or by his delegates.

How Old?

Published by the New York School Press, the book has been luxuriously printed on heavy coated stock. It contains installation shots of both the “9th Street Show,” which took place in a rented loft, and the Stable Gallery on West 57th Street, together with replicas of announcements and lists of artists. The lists give ages and the numbers of times each artist showed as well as other statistical data and a complete index of artist participation in these events.

Having been around the scene at the time, I was amused to see that age is as prone to the manipulations of vanity among the men as legend would have it was among the women.

While many of the reproductions were supplied by the artists, their galleries, and collectors, an impressive number are photographs done for the book by Geoffrey Clements, who is treated as an artist in his own right, with a full-page photograph of himself and two pages of text.

This is on a par with the work of the incomparable Aaron Siskind, the photographer-collagist who influenced the painting of his time, particularly the work of Franz Kline. With two full-page reproductions, a statement from Siskind’s own writings, plus a curriculum vitae including all his solo and group exhibits, the point of his importance is certainly made clear.

A member of the Artists Club, he was the only photographer whom the artists welcomed as a participant. Otherwise, the painters of that era considered photographers on a lower plane.

It comes as a fresh surprise to see how important the East End becomes as the place that harbored Action Painting, as Abstract Expressionism was also called by its foremost critic, Harold Rosenberg, who lived in New York and in Springs.

The list of those who lived and worked on the East End, many of whom still do, numbers 53.

All the books by Marika Herskovic/New York School Press are available at:

ALBERT KOTIN (1907-1980) belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionist Artists whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic including Paris. New York School Abstract Expressionism represented by Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline and others became the leading art movement of the postwar era.

Alexander Calder wrote in 1968:

“As long as there are people such as Al Kotin, there is no danger to art.

American abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. Blog provides images, statements by the artists and videos.

Considered a first generation abstract expressionist painter, Brooks was amongst the first abstract expressionists to use staining as an important technique. According to Carter Ratcliff: ”His concern has always been to create painterly accidents of the kind that allow buried personal meanings to take on visibility.”

James Brooks, BERL, 1956Oil on canvas, 62 x 66 inchesAll rights reserved by the artist or his legal delegates.

Nicolas Carone (June 4, 1917 – July 15, 2010) belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionist artists whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic, including Paris. New York School Abstract Expressionism, represented by Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline, Conrad Marca-Relli and others became a leading art movement of the postwar era.

Elaine de Kooning (March 12, 1918 – February 1, 1989) was an Abstract Expressionist, Figurative Expressionist painter in the post-World War II era and editorial associate for Art News magazine.[1] On December 9, 1943, she married artist Willem de Kooning, who was a highly influential artist in the Abstract Expressionism movement.

Elaine de Kooning, Untitled, 1957Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inchesAll rights reserved by the artist or her legal delegates.

Perle Fine (1908–1988) was among the most prominent female artists associated with American Abstract Expressionism. She stated: ”I never thought of myself as a student or teacher, but as a painter. When I paint something I am very much aware of the future. If I feel something will not stand up 40 years from now, I am not interested in doing that kind of thing.”

Albert Kotin belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionist Artists whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic including Paris. New York School Abstract Expressionism represented by Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline and others became the leading art movement of the postwar era.

Albert Kotin, Westerly, 1957

Oil on canvas, 69 x 79 inches All rights reserved by the artist or his legal delegates.

Conrad Marca-Relli was a New York School Abstract Expressionist artist. This period was later defined as The Abstract Expressionist Era. His monumental collages were hailed as a major art form. His works are in the collections of the leading museums of America and Europe and in private collections around the world.

Fine art collector is a blog to share the works of art that left deep impression on the collector.

Albert Kotin, Predators, 1951. Oil on canvas, 36 x 28 inches. All rights reserved by the artist or his legal delegates. This painting was exhibited at the famous 9th Street Art Exhibition, (9th St. Show) in May 21-June 10, 1951

Albert Kotin, Predators, 1951

Albert Kotin (1907-1980) belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionist Artists whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic including Paris. New York School Abstract Expressionism represented by Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline and others became the leading art movement of the postwar era.

Conrad Marca-Relli was a New York School Abstract Expressionist artist. This period was later defined as The Abstract Expressionist Era. His &quot;monumental collages&quot; were hailed as a major art form. His works are in the collections of the leading museums of America and Europe and in private collections around the world.

Joe Stefanelli (born March 20, 1921) also known as Joseph J. Stefanelli belonged to the New York School Abstract Expressionist artists whose influence and artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized around the world. According to John Russell art critic of the New York Times. &quot;He has for a long time had the gift of color that sings out in tune.&quot; As one of the youngest artists of the Abstract Expressionsit Group he participated in the first artists’ annual called the &quot;9th St. Show&quot; His paintings are seen in a number of museums throughout the US and Europe.

Giorgio Cavallon (1904-1989) was born in Sorio, near Vicenza, Italy. He was influenced early in his career by Dutch modernist Piet Mondrian. In New York City during the 1930s and 1950s, he was closely associated with Arshile Gorky, William De Kooning, and other abstract expressionists. Since the late 1960s and 1970s, Cavallon has framed his surfaces with small, dark shapes in order to control the large, unified rectangles of light color. Cavallons paintings have been described as exuding a subtle, atmospheric light reminiscent of Mediterranean villages.

Hatofsky first studied as a teenager in the art classes given by the Federal Art Project. After serving in WWII, he continued in New York at the Art Students League and Hans Hofmann School and in Paris at Académie de la Grand Chaumiere. He painted in New York until moving to San Francisco in 1961 to teach at the Art Institute where he remained for 33 years. During the 1960s he worked in a Bay Area Abstrct Expressionist mode; however, by the 1970s his paintings moved toward Figurative Expressionism. He died in Vallejo, CA on January 1, 2006.

Anki King (1970- ) was born near Oslo, Norway. In 1991 Anki King was accepted in the three year program at Oslo Drawing and Painting School before moving to New York in 1994. In New York she has built a strong career as a painter and exhibits frequently both in Europe and in USA. Her direct and solemn work requires pondering of the image for a deeper search and understanding. Recently she has begun making sculpture part of her expressive language.

New York School Abstract Expressionists
Artists Choice by ArtistsA Complete Documentation of the New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals: 1951-1957

The book provides a complete documentation of the New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals held initially as the “9th St.” Exhibition in 1951 and continued at the Stable Gallery in New York City until 1957. The book documents 265 artists.
176 full page color reproduction of 88 artists’ works.

American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s
An Illustrated Surveywith Artists’ Statements, Artworks and Biographies
The book represents eighty eight painters and sculptors of the American avant-garde. It present the most engaged mainstream creative work between 1950 and 1959 in New York and all across the USA including New York and California.

American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism
Style is Timely Art is TimelessAn Illustrated Survey with Artists’ Statements, Artworks and Biographies
This survey is a follow up to the earlier volumes:
New York School Abstract Expressionists: Artists Choice by Artists;
and
American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey.
Fifty eight American painters and sculptors of the post-World War II era, are represented, each by one abstract and one figurative work. The book intends to show that the most engaged mainstream creative work in New York and across the USA was not restricted to non-representational or representational expressionism but rather to the creative power of the individual expressionist artist. The artists are represented in alphabetical order. The usual convention of critical analysis is replaced by statements written by the artists themselves. The statements may serve to enlighten the readers as to the artists relation to their creative process.